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If IBM had there way home computers would be something more like what your furnace or water heater is. A centrally located computer that controls all the electronics in your home. Fat clients would never have even happend if apple hadnt released the apple ii.

In many ways IBMs ideology may have been better, but upgradeability would have suffered. The cost of these central home computers would have made the pace of innovation slower.

EDIT: lets give the other steve some credit too. woz was the brains that made it possible.

Sure lets just forget Commodore, Atari, Tandy and all of those others that were in the market. No It was clearly Just Apple and IBM/Microsoft... And Actually I'm pretty sure that the Apple II was a product of IBM given that IBM controlled Apple during that time period and the Apple II was vastly different from any of Apple's other products of the time, and was killed on Job's request.

Opinions vary of course, but I dont think fat clients would have been anything like they turned out to be if apple hadnt gotten the market penetration that they did. The ONLY reason IBM released the XT was because of the apple ii.

IBM had made it obviously clear that they intended to make home based mini computers. They just didnt get to in time to make their ideology pervasive. Apple did. There were other contenders, but they were almost exclusively toys. It wasnt until the apple ii that fat clients started showing up in schools and businesses.Prior to that computing was almost exclusively the domain of very expensive mini computers. Due to the cost IBM had made it a stated goal to bring the cost of mini computers down low enough that they could be affordable enough to put in a home to interface with other home electronics.

EDIT: Apple didnt have any other products of the time, the apple ii was the first viable product that they released. Based based on the success of that product apple started marketing the lisa which was by all accounts a failure. It wasnt until the macintosh was released that apple really dropped support for the apple ii, and even then it could be argued that xerox had more control over apple then IBM did.

If IBM had there way home computers would be something more like what your furnace or water heater is. A centrally located computer that controls all the electronics in your home. Fat clients would never have even happend if apple hadnt released the apple ii.

In many ways IBMs ideology may have been better, but upgradeability would have suffered. The cost of these central home computers would have made the pace of innovation slower.

EDIT: lets give the other steve some credit too. woz was the brains that made it possible.

Absolutely Woz deserves credit, never said he didn't, as do many other pioneers of the industry. IBM however had zero interest at the time at the home market. Even the first IBM PC was aimed at business and it wasn't really until the IBM PC jr that they started targeting the home market for anything. Steve Jobs however saw the potential of a computer being marketed to the average man, not a techie, not a home brew hacker, not a science major, etc. Just the average person. Ya there was the Tandy Trash 80's at the time targeted at small business (anybody remember the Tandy Computer stores?) and the Vic/C64/PET but those were seen more as gaming platforms then anything else. Steve however did something none of them did, he marketed to the educational systems (and in the Jobs 80's years they dominated that market) as well at the same times as businesses (VisiCalc) and the home market. I don't think IBM would have would have even remotely thought of catering to a central home based system. At the time it the technology just wasn't there to be had yet, even p2p networking didn't really catch on until the 90's.

Absolutely Woz deserves credit, never said he didn't, as do many other pioneers of the industry. IBM however had zero interest at the time at the home market. Even the first IBM PC was aimed at business and it wasn't really until the IBM PC jr that they started targeting the home market for anything. Steve Jobs however saw the potential of a computer being marketed to the average man, not a techie, not a home brew hacker, not a science major, etc. Just the average person. Ya there was the Tandy Trash 80's at the time targeted at small business (anybody remember the Tandy Computer stores?) and the Vic/C64/PET but those were seen more as gaming platforms then anything else. Steve however did something none of them did, he marketed to the educational systems (and in the Jobs 80's years they dominated that market) as well at the same times as businesses (VisiCalc) and the home market. I don't think IBM would have would have even remotely thought of catering to a central home based system. At the time it the technology just wasn't there to be had yet, even p2p networking didn't really catch on until the 90's.

C64 May have been seen as a gaming platform but it's also one of, if not the most popular personal computers of all time(and of course it still has a large following today via emulation), later on of course having Commodore buy out Amiga (which was THE gaming and multimedia creation computer)

And Actually I'm pretty sure that the Apple II was a product of IBM given that IBM controlled Apple during that time period and the Apple II was vastly different from any of Apple's other products of the time, and was killed on Job's request.

Where do you get the idea that IBM controlled Apple or that Apple was a product of it?

Where do you get the idea that IBM controlled Apple or that Apple was a product of it?

An ex-IBM employee told me about IBM having owned apple during this time period even though they kept it quiet. I inferred based upon this and the fact that the Apple II is so different from everything else that apple was pushing during that time period that this was most likely IBM's doing. The thing is the Apple II is a business machine whereas the Lisa and Macintosh were largely designed as a discussion piece and for manager types who couldn't be bothered to learn how to use the command line.

So in other words, bullshit. IBM being a publicly traded company would have had to disclose such investment.

I don't see any reason for the guy to have lied. I may have yet to find supporting documentation for what he said, but I have no reason to doubt his word.

Originally Posted by deanjo

Other product? During the Apple II it was Apples ONLY product which was a upgraded model of their previous product, the Apple I.

Well that depends upon if you're just counting the Apple II or if you're willing to consider the whole lifespan up to the Apple IIc Plus which came out in 1988. Note that while the original Apple II may have launched in 1977 the Lisa was being worked on starting in 1978, and then the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, which was within the lifespan of the series. The Lisa and Macintosh being Job's Personal Pet Project if you'll remember..

I may have yet to find supporting documentation for what he said, but I have no reason to doubt his word.

OK so you are really going to believe someone that more then likely had absolutely no reason to doubt an "ex-IBM employee". Guess what being an "ex-IBM employee" means sweet squat. Unless he was an ex board member / executive / legal at the time there is next to zero chance that he would have access to such information. And again any such acquirement would have had to be shown in the financial statements not to mention would have been under ftc scrutiny. Sorry but your "source" was bullshitting and you fell for it.

Well that depends upon if you're just counting the Apple II or if you're willing to consider the whole lifespan up to the Apple IIc Plus which came out in 1988. Note that while the original Apple II may have launched in 1977 the Lisa was being worked on starting in 1978, and then the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, which was within the lifespan of the series. The Lisa and Macintosh being Job's Personal Pet Project if you'll remember..

It's no secret that the inspiration for the Lisa/Mac came from the close relationship Apple had with Xerox, not IBM, who later asked MS to develop their GUI OS, OS/2.